How to Make French Manicure Tips Even

Enlist a friend to paint your tips if you have unsteady hands.

French manicures give your fingernails a clean and healthy appearance. The white tips and shiny nail bed go perfectly with any outfit and are suitable for a casual day of shopping or a fancy evening out. Unfortunately, getting that perfectly even white tip can be maddening, especially if this is your first do-it-yourself French manicure. With some practice and some careful nail shaping, you can learn to create perfectly even tips at home.

Things You'll Need

• Bowl
• Cuticle stick
• Nail clippers
• Glass nail file
• Nail buffer
• Base coat
• French manicure guide strips
• Tape
• White nail polish
• Clear nail polish
• Light pink nail polish
• White nail polish pen

Instructions

Perfect French Manicure

1. Soak your fingertips in warm water for five minutes.

2. Dry your fingers and use a cuticle stick to shape the outer edge of your nail bed, the pink part of your nail. If you examine the tips of your fingers, you will notice that the skin under your fingernail does not form a perfect curve to match the shape of your nails, making the white of your fingernails appear uneven in length.

3. Trim your fingernails. Do not attempt to shape them with nail clippers, but create even length nails. A French manicure, in particular, draws attention to the length of each nail.

4. Shape your nails with a glass nail file. Glass files shape your fingernails without tearing them like an emery board. Only file your nails in one direction. A square fingernail with slightly rounded tips will produce a more even-looking French manicure than oval fingernail tips.

5. Buff your fingernails to create an even surface for the nail polish.

6. Apply a base coat and allow it to dry.

7. Tear off a French Manicure guide strip or use a 1-inch strip of tape.

8. Align the edge of the strip with the lowest point of white nail on either side of your fingertip. Your fingernails may not grow out evenly on both sides, so you will need to align the strip with the lower side to create an even line.

9. Press the strip across the nail in a straight line. You will notice an area of pink nail bed above the strip. The white nail polish will disguise this.

10. Repeat Steps 7 through 9 for all nails.

11. Hold your hands in front of you and inspect the strips to see if all of the strips appear to create the same length of nail above the strip. Adjust strips as necessary.

12. Paint white nail polish above the strip. Allow the nail polish to dry completely before removing the strip or you will smear the nail polish.

13. Apply a clear or light pink nail polish over the entire surface of the fingernail.

Quick and Clean French Manicure

1. Repeat Steps 1 through 5 above.

2. Paint the underside of the tips of your nails with a white nail polish pen, following the natural shape of your nails. All of the tips will not be shaped exactly the same, but will appear bright, clean, straight and natural.

3. Cover the surface of your fingernails with a clear or light pink nail polish. This will add a shine to your nail and make it nearly impossible to tell the white is not on top of the fingernail.

4. Carry the white nail polish pen with you for quick touch ups if the white is scratched off the underside of your fingernail during daily activities.

References

• Sally Hansen: Perfect French Manicure
• Real Simple: How To: Manicure Your Nails
• Ladies Home Journal: Nail It: Tips and Tools for a Perfect Manicure
• Seventeen: French Manicure Tips